1. Freedom DOES come with responsibility,

and I argue more than a SMALL amount of it. When a kid, we'd say, 'Its a free country.' Right, you CAN do many things, but SHOULD you?

'Known as House Bill 422, Maag's proposal would no longer require gun-carrying motorists to promptly notify police officers during a traffic stop that they are carrying guns, or mandate that they keep their hands in plain sight.

Since the Ohio legislature passed a conceal carried law in 2006, about 265,000 Ohioans have earned permits to legally carry guns. The law has not turned the Buckeye State into the Wild West, as some gun-control activists predicted.

Maag's bill, which is co-sponsored by Republican State Rep. Andrew Thompson of Marietta, will make the streets a bit more wild, as least for drivers and for cops.

Maag and supporters of the bill argue the changes are needed to protect the rights of law-abiding permit holders.

From whom?

Cops.

That's right. Cops are the problem.

Maag and supporters of the new legislation point to Canton Police Officer Daniel Harless, who lost his mind last June during a traffic stop when William E. Bartlett, a legal permit holder, tried to quickly alert Harless that he had a gun. Harless, who didn't let Bartlett finish his first sentence, verbally threatened him and arrested him.

Harless' traffic stop, caught on dashboard camera, was outrageous and went viral on YouTube. But it was an aberration. And we don't need a law to deal with Harless. His own department fired him.'

5. Why?

Should you also inform them that you're a registered voter, or that you have a cup of hot starbucks coffee?

1) If I'm not mistaken, police are trained to approach EVERY traffic stop as if there could be a gun; what difference does confirming it make? How does this improve officer safety if they're already operating under the premise that you have a gun?

2) Carrying a gun is a perfectly legal activity (if you're not a prohibited possessor). Why should I have to report to the police that I'm engaged in an activity that is not illegal? What other legal activities would you have people report?

Fortunately, I live in a state where such silliness is not codified in law. Oddly enough, we don't have a rash of CCW holders sneaking out their pistols that they kept hidden from police and opening fire. Perhaps the same non-events will take place in Ohio.

7. If you don't see the difference between

informing the cops you have a gun and that you have a cup of Starbucks, I can't help you. One thing is the presumption that a person in a traffic stop may have a weapon - it's quite another to know that they do. If you know ahead of time, it greatly increases your vigilance, it shapes your response and permits you to secure the weapon before anything else. Seems like a very small price to pay for stopping a cop from being killed, but that's just me.

11. It cheapens a Constitutional Right.

If I am not breaking a law, or endangering/obstructing others, my exercise of my Rights is not pertinent to a police officer. As stated elsewhere, what other Rights do I have to inform the police that I am exercising? Why should this be a law? Why do you want to invent a new crime out of whole cloth? What effective good does this accomplish?

18. You know, we've been through

this before on a previous thread. You seem to believe that because something is a Constitutional right that there are no strings attached to it, and that a person is free to exercise that right in any way or fashion that (s)he sees fit. That may be fine theory, but not practice. In practice all our Constitutional rights can be and in fact are limited by regulations passed by the government to promote the public welfare. It is no infringement upon your right to carry a gun to require you to advise a cop of its presence. It's fine to state your opinion that you disagree with the law, but your disagreeing with it doesn't make it a Constitutional issue.

28. This is what you posted:

"If I am not breaking a law, or endangering/obstructing others, my exercise of my Rights is not pertinent to a police officer". In other words, having to inform the police officer you've got a weapon in the car is not pertinent, since you're exercising your right to carry a gun. Isn't that a complaint about having to do something that you believe is not pertinent???

29. What you claimed I said:

"You seem to believe that because something is a Constitutional right that there are no strings attached to it, and that a person is free to exercise that right in any way or fashion that (s)he sees fit."

I said nothing resembling that.

Now, please answer the question posed to you in posts 5, 6, 9, 11, 22, 23, and 26: How does the requirement to notify help ensure officer safety?

31. actually

What is the point of this requirement? How does it help officer safety?

it helps public safety, as you cannot help but be aware.

There are risks present if a police officer discovers a firearm on a person or in a vehicle while conducting a search, or just on a quick visual inspection. The officer has no way of knowing whether the person with the firearm is a threat, and the circumstances could be such that the officer feels at risk, either already or once the firearm is discovered.

Who knows why someone would want that situation to arise when it is so easily avoidable?

Not that a police officer should never feel at risk when the person concerned has a permit to carry a firearm, but at least they would be forewarned of the presence of the firearm in the situation.

editing to add my actual point ...

Where a police officer feels at risk - or feels there is a potential risk to the public - they may take action that could put the person concerned, members of the public or themself in danger, in order to avert the perceived risk.

I guess to some people that's just the price of promoting their own interests (whatever their interests in not disclosing their permit status might actually be).

27. I don't have to inform a police officer that I am carrying a weapon...

or have one in the car in Florida.

However when I was pulled over for an expired license tag in Florida and asked by the officer for my driver's license, I also handed him my concealed weapons permit.

He merely glanced at it and made no comment. We had a polite conversation and he informed me on just where to go to get my license tag renewed. All ended well as he acted in a very professional manner and didn't overreact to the fact that I might be carrying. I had my snub nosed .38 in a holster in my pants pocket.

Of course Florida has had shall issue concealed carry since 1987 and most of the police have absolutely no problem with the law. They are not worried about honest citizens who carry but they are are concerned about armed criminals.

A criminal with a felony record for a violent crime is unlikely to inform a police officer that he is packing heat even if the law requires it.

21. And you're absolutely right. But the fact

that one knucklehead behaves inappropriately like the jerk in Canton did doesn't invalidate the larger idea that the law is attempting to protect the lives of cops who do a really dirty job day in day out.

23. How does this requirement to notify "protect the lives of cops"? n/t

24. One knucklehead. He got caught. There are plenty more out there like him.

Police are already trained to always expect a weapon. They could also ASK when approaching the vehicle if there are weapons inside. The law-abiding will answer honestly. The bad guys will come out shooting making the asking of the question moot.